The Weekly Wrap: August 8 - August 14

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The Weekly Wrap walks readers through the last seven days in
MMA, recapping and putting into context the week's top story,
important news and notable quotes.

Top Story

Two divisional leaders, Anderson
Silva and B.J. Penn,
re-asserted their stature as part of the Ultimate Fighting
Championship’s debut in Philadelphia, while bantamweight king
Miguel
Torres suffered defeat the next night for the first time in
nearly six years.

At UFC 101 on Aug. 8, Silva and Penn took centerstage with
impressive wins, though they were markedly different in duration.
Silva, moving up to light heavyweight for the second time in the
UFC, made remarkably short work of former 205-pound champion
Forrest
Griffin, dropping the fan favorite seemingly at will with
precision punches. As advertised, Griffin came forward, but at
about the three-minute mark lunged with a one-two combination that
he paid dearly for, as Silva flicked a short punch while moving
backwards that zapped the Georgian and put him down for the third
time to finish the fight. Silva threw 27 strikes to Griffin’s 55 in
the dominant performance, according to CompuStrike, and
deliberately kept his hands down for much of the exchanges to show
off his head movement.

The TKO took Silva, who was coming off two protracted and heavily
criticized middleweight title defenses, from a subject of jeers to
a subject of awe. Combined with his past conquests of Hayato
Sakurai and Rich
Franklin, the win made Silva the first mixed martial artist to
defeat top-five fighters in three weight classes. There were a
myriad of reports about his next step; all told, it looks like
Silva will be defending his middleweight title and taking 205-pound
superfights rather than making a permanent switch.

As for Griffin, his abrupt exit from the Octagon post-fight bred
some sour feelings toward the perennial fan favorite and inspired
some Internet mockery. Despite the outcome, Griffin shared a
$60,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus with Silva, who collected
$120,000 in total bonuses, also adding a “Knockout of the Night”
prize to his take. Aside from bonuses, UFC 101 payouts were not
reported, as per the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission’s
protocol.

While Silva’s win created excitement about his prospects at a
different weight, it was Penn’s return to his established class
that produced results for the world’s top lightweight. In his
victory over Kenny
Florian, Penn recovered nicely from a deflating loss at
welterweight to Georges
St. Pierre and looked in top form. The champion did not show
any significant signs of fatigue as the fight entered the
championship rounds, a question coming in. After taking Florian’s
back in the fourth, Penn used his heel to kick at Florian’s body,
drawing the Bostonian’s hands down to create the split-second
opening Penn needed to secure a rear-naked choke for the tap. He
earned a $60,000 “Submission of the Night” bonus for the win
method.

As for Torres, the seemingly peerless bantamweight met his match
against the heavy-handed Brian
Bowles at World Extreme Cagefighting 42 on Aug. 9 in Las Vegas.
Bowles landed an overhand right early that caused Torres to
stumble, but the Chicagoland fighter was able to recover. Bowles
later ducked into a right cross, causing Torres to close in with
punches. Bowles laid low through the flurry and corked off a short
right hook that put Torres down. Torres appeared to be going for an
armbar on his back but got stung with lefts and rights until his
lights went out for the first time in his career. Bowles improved
to 8-0 with the victory, and collected a $10,000 knockout bonus on
top of his $18,000 purse. Torres took home $26,000.

The three fights capped one of the busiest weekends of the year in
MMA, as UFC 101 and WEC 42 went down on back-to-back nights, a
first for the two Zuffa outfits. The UFC card drew 17,471 fans to
the Wachovia Center for a $3.55 million gate, a combat sports
record in Pennsylvania. While there were fears that the notorious
Philly sports fans would be too quick to boo inactivity, they
appeared no quicker to jeer than any other crowd. A wild fight in
the crowd between two spectators, however, drew much of the
attention away from the event’s Aaron Riley
vs. Shane
Nelson rematch.

The WEC event took place at the newly expanded Joint at the Hard
Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, which holds about 4,000 people.
The Versus telecast of the event drew an average of 670,000
viewers, up significantly from the 470,000 who tuned in to the live
airing of Torres’ last fight against Takeya
Mizugaki in April. The number was a big drop-off from the 1.28
million who tuned in for the last WEC card in June, headlined by
the Mike Thomas
Brown-Urijah Faber
rematch.

In addition to the title fight, WEC 42 also featured two other
high-stakes bantamweight bouts. In an all-energy, 15-minute affair,
Dominick
Cruz handed Joseph
Benavidez his first pro loss in a spirited bout that likely
determined Bowles’ next contender. Cruz took the unanimous
decision, using his marked four-inch height advantage to hit all of
the takedowns in the fight, scramble effectively and keep the Alpha
Male fighter at bay with long punches.

Takeya
Mizugaki defeated Jeff Curran
via split decision. The Japanese fighter, coming off a five-round
war with Torres, used his size to hold top position for much of the
fight, though Curran appeared more active working submission
attempts and strikes from the bottom. Curran snatched a tight
triangle choke that he held until the end of the fight, and decried
the judging in interviews after the fight.